10 Movie Villains Secretly Introduced Way Earlier Than You Realise

8. Valak's Name Had Been Seen Throughout - The Conjuring 2

Spider Man Far From Home
Warner Bros.

The caveat here, of course, is that the varying forms of The Conjuring 2's main villain had been seen plenty throughout the movie, but the key to Valak is its name.

In order to banish the demonic entity, Lorraine and Ed Warren must learn the name of Valak. Across the sequel, this beast torments the Warrens, inflicts its evil ways on a family in Essex, England, and even taunts Lorraine with the gnarly death of her husband.

What The Conjuring 2 did quite brilliantly, though, is that it secretly introduced the Valak name way before the Warrens or audiences realised. And not just once, but the demon's name was right in front of our eyes at several points in the 2016 picture.

First up, the letters V A L A K can be seen on a bookshelf next to Lorraine after she's just snapped out of a horrific vision of Ed's demise. Then later, we see that Valak is spelt out on the Warren's daughter Judy's bracelet, on a windowsill at the family's home, and on a table while they all have breakfast.

As mentioned, the varying visages of Valak are seen regularly across The Conjuring 2, but the key reveal that the Warrens are waiting to unlock - the demon's name - had been there all along.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.